COSTA RICA'S RESPONSE ON THE JANUARY 9 MEETING ON

C O N F I D E N T I A L SAN JOSE 000058 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/09/2016 TAGS: PREL SMIG ECON ES NU HO EC DR CO GT CS SUBJECT: COSTA RICA'S RESPONSE ON THE JANUARY 9 MEETING ON U.S. IMMIGRATION PROPOSALS REF: SECSTATE 2995 Classified By: DCM Russell L. Frisbie for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) Summary -------------- ¶1. (C) Foreign Minister Tovar told us he would not sign a Mexican-authored communique on U.S. immigration proposals merely as a gesture of solidarity, especially if the document is "confrontational." End Summary. Costa Ricans Have Their Own Immigration Problems -------------- -------------- ¶2. (C) Per reftel, Charge delivered the demarche to Foreign Minister Tovar on January 6, 2006. Tovar, having been apprised of the subject of the meeting, had called in the Costa Rican ambassador to Nicaragua who happened to be in town. The Costa Ricans see parallels between the illegal immigration problem in the U.S. and the southward migration of Nicaraguans, who are now believed to number 500,000 in Costa Rica out of a total population of 4 million. ¶3. (C) Tovar said he was not happy about having to go to the meeting in Mexico because he did not know the specifics of the Mexicans, objections to the U.S. immigration proposals and he did not want to be pressured to sign a document that might be confrontational. He suspected that the Mexicans were motivated by their own elections, feeling a need to take a tough stance on behalf of their expatriate population. ¶4. (C) Tovar agreed that immigration law was a matter of national sovereignty, and he wondered aloud whether the Mexicans, objections had any &international legal basis.8 He said that the Nicaraguan government is always complaining about how its citizens are treated in Costa Rica and even threatened to take Costa Rica to the Inter-American Human Rights Commission after a Nicaraguan citizen was mauled and killed by a Rottweiler while police stood by. Comment -------------- ¶5. (C) Costa Ricans cannot support a position that can later be used against them by the Nicaraguans. Tovar and Costa Ricans in general appreciate the need to protect a country,s borders against illegal immigrants. But Tovar, a lawyer, is interested in whether the Mexicans base their objections to H.R. 4437 on some supposed contravention of international law. Short of that, he likely would not be supportive of the Mexicans. But if the Mexican communiqu is sufficiently benign, Tovar could well bow under pressure from the other foreign ministers present. LANGDALE